Willow Roth
Note:' '' *''This page has spoilers (with spoiler warnings). Read with caution. * Audio clips are mere examples of speaking manner/tone and might not reflect story dialogue. Willow is a main character in Ensemble Mew Mew. She is one of the first girls to become a Mew, and the first of the Ensemble Mews. |-|Civilian= |-|Mew= History 'Before The Ensemble Mews' :Willow moved to Lune City with her mother Viola and her black cat, Mitzi when she was 15 years old. Viola had sought a house there due to a new job opportunity, and so the three came to live in a small but tall San Francisco-style home with a quaint design, set atop a spacious hill that overlooked the rest of the city. :Willow didn’t have a father, and because her mother was going to be incessantly busy with her work, she was left to take care of herself while attending high school. While at Lune High, she met Daniella, who was around the same age as Willow and took the same classes. Though Willow wanted to keep to herself and was hesitant to be social at first, Daniella approached her and the two eventually became friends. :At the time, Daniella was living with Vianney who was a senior and friends with Klara, and she introduced the both of them to Willow. While she was extremely shy and quiet, she was happy that she’d managed to make some new friends. For the first half of the semester, the girls spent time together, hanging around and visiting one another. 'Viola's Death' :Unbeknownst to Willow, her home actually housed an underground laboratory. It was well hidden, with a passage beneath some floorboards. Her mother would carry out lots of extra work in the lab late at night, but claim she had stayed late at her job. :When Viola passed away halfway into Willow’s school year', Cadence' started watching over her, adopting the girl as her godchild. Willow became rather reclusive, but would still try to see her friends at school so that they wouldn’t worry about her. At home, she mostly clung to her cat Mitzi and would read or draw to distract herself. Meanwhile, Cadence continued to carry out Viola’s work, and so Willow didn’t see her much either. 'Becoming a Mew' :One day, Mitzi ran off somewhere and Willow decided to look for her around the house. As she was on her knees looking under furniture, she saw a crease in the floorboards by the main room of the house and, curious, she pulled it open to find a staircase leading into an underground laboratory. As she took some steps down, her cat ran into her, having been hiding somewhere but wanting attention now. Willow picked Mitzi up and clung to her as she descended into the lab, shocked that she’d never known about it. She understood immediately that her mother had been working here, and assumed either she chose this house because it had a laboratory, or she somehow had built it herself. :At the time, Cadence had gone out to see Celestia at her workplace about something important, and so the area was empty. After exploring the lab for a while, Willow came across a strange pearl with a rainbow-like coloring to it. She stepped closer to examine it, but it started to glow as she got closer. While it scared her, she didn’t stop and got right in front of it, hoping to get a closer view of the pearl out of utter curiosity. At that point, it began to glow so brilliantly that she became engulfed in light and could not see. After a brief period of stumbling around and trying to shield her eyes, she started to feel fatigued and passed out. :When she woke up, Cadence and Celestia were hovering over her, trying to make sure she was okay. What they all found was that the pearl had transformed Willow and gave her a new form, with cat ears and a tail, and new, bright clothing. Willow was scared at first, but after seeing herself in the mirror and being told that she was okay, she took to her new form better. Mitzi was also safe, she found, and she held the cat to her chest again as the two scientists discussed the potential of this pearl. After disclosing their and Viola’s research, and the activity in the lab throughout the Roths' time in Lune City to Willow, they told her they needed to study her form. The news of all of this overwhelmed the young girl, and in her high emotions, she turned into a cat. :Surprised, the scientists tried to work with her and help her turn back into a human, and after a brief period of time and Willow finally calming down, she returned to her human form. The group concluded that she needed to have a handle on her emotions or else she would keep transforming into a cat. Moreover, Willow found out that she could transform back into her civilian form, and used the pendant on her choker to do so. With all this information, the scientists decided to go to work on researching and experimenting more with the pearl and Viola’s prior research. In the meantime, Willow was expected to continue going to school and trying to be a normal girl. 'Forming The Ensemble Mews' :Willow became the central draw for the rest of the group and the reason they became Mews in the first place. She had no intentions to actually drag her friends into anything, but the situation was incidental. :She had tried to keep a handle on her emotions, but found it difficult to do so and would regularly refrain from group activities with her friends just so she wouldn’t risk it. Around this time, the Diaboliques had established their presence in Lune City, and thus it became difficult for everyone to go out regularly. So, they would only see each other at school, typically after classes. :After classes one day, Willow was confronted by everyone who’d grown worried about her since she had been so reclusive lately, and the sudden act caused her to become flustered. She lost control of her emotions once more and turned into a cat in front of the group, and the light from her transformation caught the eye of two of the members of the Diaboliques, who came by and pinpointed the source of the light. Willow tried to get herself to turn back into a human, but did not have the time to. The other girls, seeing that the alien was after her, took her away and ran as quickly as they could while trying to lose them. :The group managed to outrun the Danseur threat, and decided to take Willow home since they knew she was being watched over by someone and hoped that they would be able to help. There, they met with Cadence and Celestia, who took the group into the lab. When Willow finally calmed down, she managed to focus herself again in order to transform back into a human, and the girls were made aware of the situation. :Knowing that she was now going to be hunted by the Diaboliques, the girls decided they wanted to help protect Willow. Deciding this was a good opportunity to create a force to fight the Danseur threat, Cadence and Celestia infused the girls with animal DNA and power from the Rainbow Pearl, and the Ensemble Mews formed together. About 'Personality' :Willow’s sign is Cancer, and she is initially extremely shy and quiet. She is the youngest of the group, along with Daniella. Willow typically wears loose, baggy, and generally comfortable clothing because she prefers to be comfortable and isn’t one for pursuing fashion or generally girly things. She tends to hunch over a lot and fold her arms if she’s feeling nervous. :Willow is relatively to-herself but can be ambitious and cares often for other people when she gets attached to them. She is very hesitant initially, but later on she becomes more dominant and strong, learning to be more in control of her emotions and courageous, unafraid of approaching things. However, she goes from one extreme attitude to another—instead of being timid, she shuts people out, afraid of hurting them. It is not until she meets [[Marianne Richardson|'Marianne']], the last girl of the group, that this changes. 'Preferences' :Willow likes cats and other feline animals, having been attached to them since she was very young and had Mitzi as a pet. She enjoys sweets, especially creamy things or baked goods. Willow loves to write and draw, having had dreams of becoming a professional creative writer or an author in her future. While she is unable to go to school because of the events in the series, she does constantly write and has various journals full of story ideas. :Willow dislikes sour foods, mostly because of the taste and the feeling it gives her. She is afraid of heights and dislikes water, so doesn’t like to swim all that much. She also hates sad movies, since she wants to try to bring positivity in her life and feels like watching sad movies will just make her even more sad. Mew Form 'Powers and Weapons' Willow's Mew Mark (EMM).png Willow's Sonorous Strawberry Triangle.png Strawberry Parfait.jpg Black Cat (Domestic).jpg :After being infused with the powers of the Rainbow Pearl, Willow becomes Mew Parfait. Her associated food is Strawberry Parfait. She is infused with the DNA of a Black Cat, and is one of the only Ensemble Mews who can actually transform into her animal because of the direct contact she had with the pearl. Her Mew Mark '''is a red cat’s head with ears and whiskers that is located over her chest, but it is hardly ever visible either in her Mew form or her civilian form since prefers to cover herself up quite often and her Mew form does not expose her chest. :Mew Parfait encompasses the elements of '''sound '''and '''healing, and she uses her weapon, the Sonorous Strawberry Triangle to channel them. Mew Parfait’s power is activated by bravery and courage, and because these traits are so weak in her when she is younger, she is not particularly powerful at first. 'Fighting Style' :Mew Parfait has two solo attacks—[[Ensemble Mew Mew: Attacks#Ribbon_Parfait_Resonance|'Ribbon Parfait Resonance']] and [[Ensemble Mew Mew: Attacks#Ribbon_Parfait_Ring|'Ribbon Parfait Ring']]. The former is passive and is meant to heal, and the latter is more offensive, to attack enemies with. Generally, she prefers to fight from a distance, typically staying behind the other Ensemble Mews. It is only later on that she starts to fight more offensively and closer to her enemies (without having to resort to hand-to-hand) :While her teammates have joint attacks with one another, she only has two combined attacks. One is [[Ensemble Mew Mew: Attacks#Ribbon_Pearl_Ensemble|'Ribbon Pearl Ensemble']], which is with her entire team, and the other is [[Ensemble Mew Mew: Attacks#Ringing_Dance_of_Light|'Ringing Dance of Light']], with Marianne. Musical Themes See the series 'song list' for links to and elaboration on theme music. :Her associated instrument is the triangle, which is also her weapon in her Mew form. It is not a very cherished instrument, and in fact is overlooked most of the time despite being so integral to so many pieces of music—classical or modern. This is meant to reflect Willow’s nature and her tendency to be overlooked or left in the background. :Willow's main theme is “Serenade for Flute, Violin, Viola and Triangle, (B. 15bis) – Largo” by Antonín Dvořák (see above). Role 'The Ensemble Mews' :Willow fights more passively when she is younger, with the original team. She acts as support compared to her other team members because her offensive attack is so weak. She mostly stays back, acts as a lookout, and heals her team in the case of injury using her triangle. Because of her passive role, Willow felt useless as a teammate most times and felt even worse knowing that her friends always had to protect her. :When the final battle with Étoile happened and the pearl was lost to her clutches, Willow grew extremely frightened and pessimistic. She ran away instead of staying with her team, both out of fear and because she felt she wouldn’t be able to do anything anyway. She never saw her friends after that final fight, hiding somewhere away from her home until later on when they had already dissipated. 'After Split' :After the team split up, Willow returned to Cadence and Celestia to try to find a way to beat the Diaboliques, hoping that doing so would make up for her running away to begin with. While the three went into hiding in Viola’s laboratory, Willow began training to strengthen her body and Mew form,even learning to voluntarily transform into and out of her cat form. :She learned to better control her emotions from Cadence, who had experience with this prospect after Viola’s death (she had to learn to control her emotions in order to work with the pearl, not wanting another incident like before). To keep her identity safe and be able to walk among other people, Willow had Celestia help her cut and dye her hair to a completely opposite color. :Using her cat form, Willow started to sneak into and out of places in order to steal supplies or spy on other people for information on the outside world under the Diaboliques’ rule. Food, water, medical supplies, and scientific supplies were stolen from various places by her. 'Upgraded Form' :Willow’s Mew form continued to be studied by Celestia and Cadence, and over time they found that it was evolving with Willow’s body. As she grew in the two years between her old team and new partner, Willow’s Mew form adapted to her older body, with a slight alteration in appearance. Moreover, Willow found that her weapon was much stronger now that she was more in control of her emotions, and that she could fight more offensively than before. |-|Civilian= |-|Mew= 'After Resurgence' :Willow tried to face Étoile once more on her own after growing stronger but ultimately failed to beat her. She was only able to chip off a shard from the Rainbow Pearl in Étoile's possession and run away with it while narrowly avoiding being caught by the Diaboliques. :When she meets Marianne, just over two years has passed, and Willow is now 17. She goes undercover as a student back at Lune High but steals supplies from the school’s labs and offices after classes are over. When Marianne catches her transforming into her cat form and causes a scene, she has to protect her. Officers working under the Diaboliques find out about the incident and threaten to take the girls to them for questioning. When hearing this, Willow “kidnaps” the Marianne, stealing a car and driving it home to hide her in the laboratory there. :Knowing that Marianne would be in danger if left alone, she, Celestia, and Cadence let her stay with them. She ends up having to protect her later, after she is captured by two of the Diaboliques, who by now had heard of the two runaways and started seeking them out. They manage to catch the girls during one of Willow’s supply runs, where she, after some convincing, brought Marianne along. When her inexperienced partner fails to run away, Willow decides to act. She knows she wouldn’t be able to fight off the Danseurs alone, so she turns into a cat, runs home, and steals the pearl shard from the lab. She finds and brings the shard back to Marianne and throws it at her in desperation, knowing it would react to her as it had before. The pearl shard then becomes embedded into Marianne's body, its power surging through her. She turns into a Mew, and the two girls partner up to fend off the two Diaboliques before running away. They become partners afterward, continuing to the fight against the Diaboliques. In the meantime, Willow decides to train Marianne and prepare her to face Étoile and her subordinates all together. ::'''''SPOILER: ⛔''Willow eventually resorts to calling the other members of her old team, and it is Klara who answers first and starts helping Willow to train Marianne. The others do not show up until a little while later.⛔ Relationships *'Viola Roth:' Willow had a difficult relationship with her mother. She loved her, but felt like Viola wasn't there enough to really feel close to her. She tried to be understanding of her mother's business and of the fact that she was simply trying her best to make things work, but felt her lack of presence was taxing. She only truly got to connect with her mother and learn more about her through the work she left behind. *'Cadence Harper:' Willow is actually quite threatened by Cadence at first. Despite later coming to know her because of her mother, and because she had to foster her after Viola’s death, she still feels uneasy around Cadence's upfront and cold personality. Willow knows Cadence cares about her, but finds she lacks the same warmth that others in the group have. However, after the original Ensemble Mews split up, Willow was actually taught by Cadence how to control her emotions, and she valued her input much more than before. She finds now that Cadence is very responsible and can be gentle and kind when she lets herself get attached to someone. *'Celestia Sweet:' Celestia's quirky and lively nature is a little off-putting to a shy, reserved Willow when she is younger, but she soon finds the woman to be very caring, understanding, and easy to talk to. While Cadence is her official caretaker after her mother's death, Celestia is the one who takes care of Willow more actively. Later on, Willow's relationship to Celestia is like that of a big and little sister. When the original Ensemble Mews split, Celestia cut and dyed Willow's hair to help her hide her identity, as she regularly did so to her own hair and knew how to change up her appearance. *'Klara De Jongh:' Willow is both a little jealous of and idolizes Klara for being so laid back and casual about things. She finds comfort in her tranquil nature and is happy that Klara is understanding of her, knowing when to give her space and when to actually confront her about an issue. Of the original group, Klara is the one who gives her the most comfort and understands best how to handle her. *'Daniella Gillespie:' Willow is more accustomed to Danny simply because she met her first, but she gets easily exhausted by her energy at times. Despite this, the two are quite fond of one another, and Danny helps Willow to be more social when she would more than likely sit at home and do nothing. *'Vianney Soubrette:' Willow is not quite a fan of her flamboyant nature initially, but is also happy that she is so kind to her. She’d always had an image of rich girls being utterly spoiled, but Vianney shattered that image and always treated her with kindness and patience, like Klara. Vianney, like Danny, always tries to get Willow to be more social, sometimes to an overwhelming degree because of how much energy and passion she has. *'Marianne Richardson: '''Like the above two, Marianne is very energetic. However, Willow is attached to her because, like Klara, she understands her situation and feelings quite well. Marianne has gone through similar circumstances and is a model for Willow, someone who has gotten themselves out of hardship and who she admires. While she rejects Marianne regularly when they first meet due to a colder and hardened personality developed after the events with her previous team, she comes to truly love the girl's company. She becomes very open with Marianne who cares for her and shows interest in her writing. EMM Willow and Marianne 1.png| Willow and Marianne bumper EMM Willow and Marianne 2.png| Willow and Marianne (Mew) Created by AnnikaDoll Category:Annika's Pages Category:Ensemble Mew Mew Category:Ensemble Mew Mew Characters Category:Members of The Ensemble Mews Category:Mew Mews Category:Females Category:Heroes Category:Weapon Users: Musical Instruments Category:Mews Whose Genes Manifest Category:Mews with Feline Genes Category:Red Mews Category:White Mews Category:Pink Mews Category:Mews with Multiple Forms Category:Weapon Users: Healing Category:Weapon Users: Sound